This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art, which may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure that are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In order to provide a better listening experience to television viewers, one solution has been to add external speakers to the television, often driven by so-called home cinema or home theatre devices. These external speakers take over the role of the internal left and right speakers of the television. Systems with more than two speakers are known and often named by the number of speakers and bass speakers, for example 3.1 for three speakers and one bass speaker, and 5.1 for five speakers and one bass speaker. Other names for multi-channel systems are Ambisonic or surroundsound. Usually, these systems include a center speaker for speech intelligibility.
Conventional home cinema (also called home theatre) systems include a screen for displaying video, device including an amplifier for obtaining a sound signal to be sent to a number of speakers for rendering audio. The screen can be a flat surface onto which a device projects the video, but it can also be the screen of a conventional television.
Home cinema systems as described above are conventionally housed in two or more devices that are connected via HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) cables, but sometimes additional audio cables, data links or Ethernet connections are used.
HDMI is an audio/video interface described in a standard that includes several sections, such as:
    DDC: Display Data Channel is a communication channel based on the I2C bus specification. HDMI requires compliant devices to implement the Enhanced Display Data Channel (E-DDC), which is used by a HDMI source device to read the Enhanced Extended Display Identification Data (E-EDID) data from a HDMI sink device to learn what audio/video formats it supports.    CEC: Consumer Electronics Control is a HDMI feature designed to allow the user to command and control up to 15 CEC-enabled devices connected through HDMI. It facilitates the transmission of remote control signals. Further, CEC allows for individual CEC-enabled devices to command and control each other without user intervention. CEC is bidirectional.    TMDS: Transition-Minimized Differential Signaling on HDMI interleaves video, audio and auxiliary data using three different packet types, called the Video Data Period, the Data Island Period and the Control Period. During the Video Data Period, the pixels of an active video line are transmitted. During the Data Island period (which occurs during the horizontal and vertical blanking intervals), audio and auxiliary data are transmitted within a series of packets. The Control Period occurs between Video and Data Island periods. TMDS is unidirectional.    ARC: Audio Reverse Channel is a unidirectional audio link intended to replace other cables between the TV and the A/V receiver or home cinema. This direction is used when the TV is the source of the video and audio stream instead of the other equipment. Without ARC, the audio output from the TV needs to be routed by another cable, typically TOS-Link or coax, into the speaker system. It uses an additional cable.    HEC: HDMI-Ethernet Channel provides a bidirectional Ethernet communication. It is combined with ARC to HEAC (HDMI Ethernet Audio Connection).
Home cinema systems are often identified by the number of speakers they include. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 1, a 3.1 system 100 typically includes one speaker 110 to the left of the screen 140, one speaker 112 to the right of the screen, a center speaker 120 positioned below, in front of or above the screen and a bass speaker 130 (whose position is less strict). The center speaker 120 and the bass speaker 130 can be located in the same physical unit. A 5.1 system includes two more speakers, and a 7.1 system a further two.
A problem with conventional home cinema systems is that it can be difficult to position the center speaker when the video is rendered on a television. There may for example be no space on the ground just in front of the television and the speaker may in some cases block the screen.
Chinese utility model CN 200959634 proposes a home cinema system that has the internal left and right speakers of the television working together as the center speaker. However, the solution requires hard wiring the home cinema system and these speakers. Further, the solution does not appear to provide any solution to possible problems when it comes to delay, inadequate mixing and volume.
It will be appreciated that it is desired to have a solution that overcomes at least part of the conventional problems related to the center speaker in home cinema systems.